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The whole World watched after a month of uncertainly finally became a reality Bulgaria was officially evicted from EDEN. Despite the obvious misconduct by EDEN HQ the future of the Bulgarians was now shrouded in mystery. Would they join ONE, the superpower alliance taking EDEN and Terra by storm? Or would they join Terra dissociating themselves from the Brotherhood yet still remaining close enough to those they considered friends? Nobody quite predicted the rise of the Circle of Trust and its success.

Throughout 2011 and early 2012 EDEN faced a crisis. Struggling to match ONE on the battlefield HQ turned to an unobligated Turkey to add some much needed flare to their firepower. Protocol was dropped and the Turks were allowed into the Brotherhood without a committed trial membership period. Although the Greeks, on-off enemies of the Turks, had accepted HQ’s actions the Bulgarians couldn’t. To them there was too much bad blood, both in game and in real life, to be sided with Turkey. Turkish membership simply could not be tolerated it was the equivalent of Serbian membership. Objections were made, votes were called, support was rallied yet in the end Turkey won the standoff leaving the Bulgarians unaligned.

Bulgaria Vs Turkey Active Population 2012

On the other side of this axis Terra too was facing internal problems. Terra had been established as an alliance for the Americas, its foundation followed months of American and Brazilian negotiations. Originally named PANAM over time their strict policy on membership eased seeing entries from Asian and European nations. Terra’s stint in eRepublik’s history was filled with many domestic disturbances, in a time frame of five months five member states either left or were evicted from the alliance.

In March 2012 Chile, roughly a quarter of the size that it is today, would become the second member to become evicted.

All time Terra members

Chile, a member of Terra for almost a year, had a disputed claim to colonial territories in Peru and Paraguay, regions which pro-Terra nation Argentina was in possession of. Relations between the two Latin American countries were stale and, with Chilean priorities being set to resistance wars in Peru and Paraguay against Argentina, tensions were reaching boiling point. The worsening situation caused anxiety in Terra HQ, they felt Chile was becoming more and more despondent from the alliance. In a move HQ labelled a “betrayal” Terra answered a plea from Chile for support in a war against Pro-ONE New Zealand however it later became apparent that Chile was using this as an opportunity to try and block Argentinian advancement. Angered, HQ called a called an eminent vote on Chile’s membership, eviction was favoured by all bar Russia.

“The primary reason that Chile was kicked out is that TERRA and its member nations were tired of defending Chile while they took unilateral actions without consulting with the alliance” Oblige explained to the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shortly after the eviction “and then, frequently, taking them even after alliance HQ or other member CPs asked them to stop. They used to be one of the most reliable members of our alliance, but over the past few months have degraded to the point where the entirety of their damage is spent not helping other nations in TERRA, but on starting RWs against Argentina, and helping keep New Zealand from being wiped”

Throughout this ordeal Bulgaria had developed ties with Chile supporting them militarily and politically. With Bulgarian support appearing in debates on Chilean eviction all around Latin America and the USA it was beginning to become apparent to most that a strong bond had grown between the two countries. On June 22th 2012, 3 months after Bulgaria & Chile had departed EDEN & Terra respectfully, it was announced to the world that a new alliance was in existence, the Circle of Trust.

Active population of the Circle of Trust

To most the Circle of Trust didn’t seem like anything significant, with founding members Bulgaria, Chile, Switzerland, New Zealand, South Korea, Peru and Paraguay it didn’t exactly have a strong damage output. While the rest of the world fixated on battling ONE, the Circle of Trust’s main priority was on ensuring all its smaller members retained Congress elections for the foreseeable future. Perhaps an immediate speed bump for CoT was the failure of its Mobile Forces. No doubt based EDEN’s highly popular mobiles CoT too desired for a strong, portable MU capable of inflicting hard damage anywhere around the world. Given the extensive locations of CoT members and the early petite size of the alliance, a mobile force seemed a necessity though the concept never took off, recruitment didn’t catch huge numbers and those that did join didn’t stick around too long. The MU hastily and discreetly was allowed to die.

Despite this most will remember the Circle’s early success in Latin America. South America had (and has) been the centerfold for CoT’s early campaigns. Chile, Peru and Paraguay all had unfinished business with the Argentineans, “what we did in South America [liberating Paraguay and conquering Argentina] has been the alliance’s biggest success to date” says Nysex who’s been in HQ since its establishment and is the current PR of CoT. “We liberated our friends, erased Argentina from the map and showed the world what we are capable of”. Nysex, a Bulgarian, is eager to prompt the alliance to me “CoT works for CoT, it does not serve anybody's personal or national interests, the reason she has existed so long is because of what lies in her foundation – true friendship and equality”.

Internally the alliance was growing; Bulgaria had matured from a rush of new players that occurred toward her ending quarter with EDEN while Chile had pulled off a successful baby boom. External members didn’t join the alliance until about three month post establishment. Japan and Moldova were the first, followed three days later by Mexico (who would go on to have her own baby boom). This growth of the Circle of Trust certainly put her in a desirable position following ONE’s disbandment. Former ONE members Indonesia and the Republic of Macedonia applied for trial membership, becoming full members less than a month later.

The history of CoT strength (as a percentage of the World), this graph is from Belgian author Tony Clifford, who routinely records the growth of the alliance. You can find his newpaper, The Big Red Express, here.

Today the alliance is a testament to her early principals. Bar a brief hick up with Belgium, who brought into question their CoT membership a few months ago, the Circle remains fully cemented free of domestic controversy. Her ties to dissolved ONE along with shared military objectives have seen CoT side with TWO on many battlefields recently decimating EDEN. “It is not exactly coalition, more like cooperation” explains Nysex. These factors I’m sure have contributed to the United States of America’s current membership bid.

It was the grave mistakes of EDEN and Terra that gave passage to the creation of the Circle of Trust. Though founded as a minute grouping of adrift friends during a catastrophic World War, the Circle has outlived both Terra and ONE. As an unstable EDEN stares dissolution in the face many Bulgarians will savor a moment they’ve been waiting for for a long, long time. But, in such circumstances what would become of the Circle of Trust? Could they co-exist with TWO like Terra did with EDEN? In a recent article published by Iain Keers he voices his view that given an EDEN collapse it would be inventible that the two remaining sides would go to war against one another, with the dissolved EDEN states finding themselves on either axis. I look forward to any such drastic change of world events!

Thank you for reading, please subscribe to read future articles I will publish. My next piece will be on the oldest alliance in eRepublik, EDEN.